The prohibitive cost of recorded audio books can leave you at the mercy of whatever small and eclectic collection can be found at your public library. Audio books are not just more expensive that music albums, they're often more expensive than the actual books they're derived from.

Enter Librivox. This all-volunteer website provides free audio recordings of public domain books. You can download the recordings and play them back on your computer, your iPod or any other MP3 device. If you like what they're doing, drop 'em an e-mail and see whether you can dictate a chapter or ten for the cause.